Sitting here right now writing up my final post is more difficult then I have imagined. As I sat in class the first day I was surprised during her explanations of the type of medium we will be using and the flexibility of the work. In a typical English class we would write essays, print them out and turn them in, and get a bunch of red marks and a grade. However, this class was different, the audience we wrote for was different, and her methods were different.
We turn in our work by posting ups blogs before a certain time every week. The readers is not limited to just our teacher, since it is on the World Wide Web everyone has the opportunity to read it and give their thoughts on the matter. We would post subjects of things that were discussed in class, but we never really had a certain topic we had to write able it varies between everyone in class. So when we post all the students have different topics that they feel the need to post . Over the years my writing has never improved much, I took writing courses , practice , but I never had much improvement, until I had enter this class. I had sent a link of my blog to friends and they gave me a lot of nice comments. The one that stood out the most was when I was ask if I really had wrote it, because she said it sounded so professional and unlike me.
Besides seeing improvement on my writing I had learn to read and watch things in a more detailed manner. For example, cell phone ads, I notice the little things that they try to get their audience to focus on, or how the color and lighting plays an important role in the ads. The people they use and the mood of the ads all have a certain significant, nothing that is shown is without reason.
In my personal opinion, this is by far; my most favorite’s class that I have taken in University of California, Davis. I had a very good experience with everyone in class, there were a lot of integrations and the discussions were amazing, hearing other people outlook and ideas help me see things in a new light. Also no matter how much different people views are it never lead to arguments, everyone just rationally explain their ideas and move on. In the future I hope to encounter another class similar to this one, because it has been an experience I will remember.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Key word Love
The Key word Love has many different meanings; one plain word cannot simply describe its complexity. The word Love can be dated back to the earliest English writing in the eighth century. The very roots of this word can be trace back to the old English word “lufu”, which is related to the Old Frisian “Luve”, Old High German “Luba”, and Gothic “Lubo”. Also it was derived from the Latin words “Lubet” meaning pleasing and “Lubido” meaning desire. The meaning behind the word Love had such an intricacy that the Greeks used the words Eros, Phila, and Agape to distinguish its meaning. Eros means passionate love, a sensual desire and longing. It could be interpreted as a love for someone you plan to spend the rest of your life with. It is a feeling of appreciation for the inner beauty of and individual rather than outer beauty. Phila, meaning friendship in Greek, represent the type of love a person feels for a friend or a family member. It is the bond that holds a friendship intact, caring for the people who raised you and those you grew up with. Agape means Love, it can be describe to denote the feeling of a persons’ spouse or having held someone with high regards.
According to the Oxford English dictionary love was originally used as a meaning to have feelings or a great affection, and fondness to another person. In the past love represented a distinctive set of emotions from one person to another base on how much feelings were felt. Today of course love is used in a similar manner to express ones emotions. However, the meaning behind love has been dramatically decreasing in the 21st century. Before the 19th century, because of arranged marriages the term love represented significant feelings towards another person through a constant build up of emotions after a long period of time. One person cannot simply see say love at first site when arrange marriages are conducted through the parents of each individuals. The feelings of love that are developed later between the spouses are a buildup of care, devotion and trust in one another after a certain period of time. During that time love represented a special feeling that could only take time to develop. For example, the blooming of a flower; a seed with the right sun light and enough water it becomes a lovely full grown flower. This meaning of love has been carried over to the 21st century.
However, this word has been over used in our society. People today confuse the desires of lust and the need to have someone that they throw around the word love with ease and little emotions. When you walk into a room and you catch a glimpse of a beautiful girl or a handsome guy, people automatically states that they are in love. After getting together for a day, they will already declare their love for one another. Ironically those type of relationships end of falling apart and those two ends up despising one another, even after being in “love” merely the day before. I have witnessed many people stating that they love the person they are currently going out with, but they said the same thing with the last five relationships that they have been in. It seems that people get deluded by the happily ever after stories that whenever someone reasonable comes along they must take this chance to say “I Love you”, in hope it will last forever. But the more they use it, the more it is repeated, the more meaningless it becomes. This is a type of situation that can be represented by a meal. Everyone has a favorite meal or favorite type of food. For example, I like eating pizza. The taste, the color, and the texture it intrigues me. Nevertheless, if I had to eat it every day, seven days a week for four weeks a month; I will get tired of it. The food would not taste as good if I had only eaten it once a month.
Even though this word has been abused by many people over the years and the meaning have decreased, there are people who hold it to high regards. To me the word love represents a simple word called selflessness. When you think of the words of love between a man or a women, a mother and her son and between two best friends they all have something in common. The ability to put those you care about before yourself. In the past or the present when you are in love with another person, all you care about are those people. You care about if they are happy, sad, mad, etc. No matter what their emotions are, or how they are acting you still cherish that person because you love them. In the past the word love had many different words to represent its meaning to the world, but today in the 21st century we all sum those definitions to one word “Love”; the innate ability to put the well being of those who care about deeply before you. Seeing you love one in pain, your friends in tears, or a family member hurt, wishing it was you who was in the accident, you were the one that is crying and wishing for a way to take their pain away. That is what love means, over the many years love have not change, it has been abused, over used, but never changed. It still have the same meaning it did when the Greeks were in power, and when Old English was just English. But rather than having words like Eros, Phila, and Agape we have Love. It is a word that should be held in high regards because to finally be able to claim you are in love is to claim that you are willing to set aside your well being for another. Also it is not something you can just declare; it takes time and devotion to strengthen the relation that you are, no matter if it’s the love of a family member, or the love of a friend. It takes years of developing the trust and understand with one another to be able to such a claim.
I spent many years thinking about the meaning of love and its true nature. Now I finally understand the universal meaning behind this complex word. The word never changed, it just combined itself over the years.
According to the Oxford English dictionary love was originally used as a meaning to have feelings or a great affection, and fondness to another person. In the past love represented a distinctive set of emotions from one person to another base on how much feelings were felt. Today of course love is used in a similar manner to express ones emotions. However, the meaning behind love has been dramatically decreasing in the 21st century. Before the 19th century, because of arranged marriages the term love represented significant feelings towards another person through a constant build up of emotions after a long period of time. One person cannot simply see say love at first site when arrange marriages are conducted through the parents of each individuals. The feelings of love that are developed later between the spouses are a buildup of care, devotion and trust in one another after a certain period of time. During that time love represented a special feeling that could only take time to develop. For example, the blooming of a flower; a seed with the right sun light and enough water it becomes a lovely full grown flower. This meaning of love has been carried over to the 21st century.
However, this word has been over used in our society. People today confuse the desires of lust and the need to have someone that they throw around the word love with ease and little emotions. When you walk into a room and you catch a glimpse of a beautiful girl or a handsome guy, people automatically states that they are in love. After getting together for a day, they will already declare their love for one another. Ironically those type of relationships end of falling apart and those two ends up despising one another, even after being in “love” merely the day before. I have witnessed many people stating that they love the person they are currently going out with, but they said the same thing with the last five relationships that they have been in. It seems that people get deluded by the happily ever after stories that whenever someone reasonable comes along they must take this chance to say “I Love you”, in hope it will last forever. But the more they use it, the more it is repeated, the more meaningless it becomes. This is a type of situation that can be represented by a meal. Everyone has a favorite meal or favorite type of food. For example, I like eating pizza. The taste, the color, and the texture it intrigues me. Nevertheless, if I had to eat it every day, seven days a week for four weeks a month; I will get tired of it. The food would not taste as good if I had only eaten it once a month.
Even though this word has been abused by many people over the years and the meaning have decreased, there are people who hold it to high regards. To me the word love represents a simple word called selflessness. When you think of the words of love between a man or a women, a mother and her son and between two best friends they all have something in common. The ability to put those you care about before yourself. In the past or the present when you are in love with another person, all you care about are those people. You care about if they are happy, sad, mad, etc. No matter what their emotions are, or how they are acting you still cherish that person because you love them. In the past the word love had many different words to represent its meaning to the world, but today in the 21st century we all sum those definitions to one word “Love”; the innate ability to put the well being of those who care about deeply before you. Seeing you love one in pain, your friends in tears, or a family member hurt, wishing it was you who was in the accident, you were the one that is crying and wishing for a way to take their pain away. That is what love means, over the many years love have not change, it has been abused, over used, but never changed. It still have the same meaning it did when the Greeks were in power, and when Old English was just English. But rather than having words like Eros, Phila, and Agape we have Love. It is a word that should be held in high regards because to finally be able to claim you are in love is to claim that you are willing to set aside your well being for another. Also it is not something you can just declare; it takes time and devotion to strengthen the relation that you are, no matter if it’s the love of a family member, or the love of a friend. It takes years of developing the trust and understand with one another to be able to such a claim.
I spent many years thinking about the meaning of love and its true nature. Now I finally understand the universal meaning behind this complex word. The word never changed, it just combined itself over the years.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Its so small but it reaches so far
“Something simple, an object, taken for granted", those were the words that went through my mind as I sat on the bus waiting to go home. As I was lost in my thoughts my cell phone rang, it was a text message from my friend Mg. Then the idea came to me, the object for this week’s post will be my cell phone.
From this picture, my cell phone is not the latest model, it has been dropped a lot over the year, but it is objects that I feel we all take for granted. I never notice it before, but a cell phone is very essential to everyday life. It is amazing how technology is come so far in the last century. Thinking back to the 1800's before the invention of the telephone, it would have taken days or weeks to reach someone and inform them any type of news. Back then it was also difficult to keep in touch with family members living in other towns or countries. But in the 21st century we have the technology to stay closer to one another even though we are so far away. For example, refer back to the picture of my cell phone; I used the technology of a webcam take the picture.
The advancement in our technology is astonishing; this small webcam that I used to take the picture serves a major purpose in my life. I used this webcam to keep in contact with all my cousins who live over 200 miles away from me. Even though we are so far away, I feel like I am right next to them when we are all online talking to one another through the webcam. The picture, the voice, the movements, they are all so clear and accurate. It is almost like we are all in the same room. The cell phone has a similar purpose to the webcam.
First of all, I like to discuss the features my cell phone. It has two buttons on each side; one side controls the music player and volume, while the other controls the camera functions. The back on the cell phone contains the camera and the T-mobile letters with a unique picture of five circles creating an image of a pentagon. This picture is significant for my cell phone it informs me that my cell phone has the ability to use T-mobile Fav Five feature. For those who do not know , this is a cell phone plan for T-mobile allow users to pick five people that they always call and make it so that I do not waste minutes when I call them. Not all cell phones can do this, only the ones with the circle sign can be used with this plan. This feature was created so that people would need to buy this certain type of cell phone from T-mobile only. However what makes this cell phone my cell phone and connected to me is the Wallpaper.
At first glance my wall paper gives of the impression that I must like candy, since it is on my phone. I have had many people ask me why like to use this picture as my wallpaper when there are so many other options? The answer is simple, the picture wholes a lot of meaning to me. The wallpaper is worth over 300 dollars and took over 4 years to make. You might think that impossible, but it is true. This wallpaper is really a birthday card that I personally put time into to make for her 19th birthday. To make this card I had put together two birthday cards she had given me when I had turn 15 and 16 years old. The candy wrappers are the original wrappers from the candies she had given me at the time. The most expensive part of this wallpaper is the heart and star necklaces that are on the card. I spent hours walking to different jewelry stores in Arden Fair Mall before I pick those two, together they are worth at least 340 with the store discount. That is why this wallpaper is an important aspect on my cell phone.
The cell phone itself has many useful fuctions.Before I had my cell phone I was not bothered as much with people calling me or texting me. It has never occurred to me the importance of being able to keep contact with others. But when I acquired my cell phone everything changed, in a sense of how I talk to my friends and family. Cell phone are commonly small and very light, you do not even notice its presence until it rings. There is a saying," You never know what you have until it is gone". This saying reminds me a lot of my cell phone and how I would feel if I have lost it. I would not be able to text message anyone when I am bored or need a friend to talk to. I cannot call someone when there is an emergency and I need to reach people. More importantly I would not be able to call the people I care about to make sure they are safe. This reminds me of an incident that happen a few weeks ago. I got this message from my best friend, something bad had happen to her and it scared me. She was 70 miles away and I cannot just bike over to see her. So I did the next best thing I called her as soon as I could. After a few minutes I was able to reach her and talk to her about the personal problems that were going on in her life. I felt so relieved after that call knowing she is safe. We are miles apart and I know I can never be there with her all the time, but by knowing I have a way to reach at all times is comforting. The same goes for everyone else in my life; I have friends who have moved across the state and across the nation. It is physically impossible to be there with them when we are separated by miles and miles of land.
That is why I am thankful that in 1876 Alexander Graham had invented the telephone, because it had lead to the advancement of the handheld cellular phone. The cell phone has helped me keep in touch with everyone in my life. No matter how far they are, this small object has the ability to reach them. I can be in Stockton and call my friend in Santa Clarita, even though it is a five hour drive I can reach her in mere minutes. Also with texting I am not limited to talking to only one person, I can text message 10, 20 or even 30 people at a time with just a push of a button. Technology is truly amazing, without my cell phone I would not be able to keep my relationships with my family and friend as strong as it is right now.
From this picture, my cell phone is not the latest model, it has been dropped a lot over the year, but it is objects that I feel we all take for granted. I never notice it before, but a cell phone is very essential to everyday life. It is amazing how technology is come so far in the last century. Thinking back to the 1800's before the invention of the telephone, it would have taken days or weeks to reach someone and inform them any type of news. Back then it was also difficult to keep in touch with family members living in other towns or countries. But in the 21st century we have the technology to stay closer to one another even though we are so far away. For example, refer back to the picture of my cell phone; I used the technology of a webcam take the picture.
The advancement in our technology is astonishing; this small webcam that I used to take the picture serves a major purpose in my life. I used this webcam to keep in contact with all my cousins who live over 200 miles away from me. Even though we are so far away, I feel like I am right next to them when we are all online talking to one another through the webcam. The picture, the voice, the movements, they are all so clear and accurate. It is almost like we are all in the same room. The cell phone has a similar purpose to the webcam.
First of all, I like to discuss the features my cell phone. It has two buttons on each side; one side controls the music player and volume, while the other controls the camera functions. The back on the cell phone contains the camera and the T-mobile letters with a unique picture of five circles creating an image of a pentagon. This picture is significant for my cell phone it informs me that my cell phone has the ability to use T-mobile Fav Five feature. For those who do not know , this is a cell phone plan for T-mobile allow users to pick five people that they always call and make it so that I do not waste minutes when I call them. Not all cell phones can do this, only the ones with the circle sign can be used with this plan. This feature was created so that people would need to buy this certain type of cell phone from T-mobile only. However what makes this cell phone my cell phone and connected to me is the Wallpaper.
At first glance my wall paper gives of the impression that I must like candy, since it is on my phone. I have had many people ask me why like to use this picture as my wallpaper when there are so many other options? The answer is simple, the picture wholes a lot of meaning to me. The wallpaper is worth over 300 dollars and took over 4 years to make. You might think that impossible, but it is true. This wallpaper is really a birthday card that I personally put time into to make for her 19th birthday. To make this card I had put together two birthday cards she had given me when I had turn 15 and 16 years old. The candy wrappers are the original wrappers from the candies she had given me at the time. The most expensive part of this wallpaper is the heart and star necklaces that are on the card. I spent hours walking to different jewelry stores in Arden Fair Mall before I pick those two, together they are worth at least 340 with the store discount. That is why this wallpaper is an important aspect on my cell phone.
The cell phone itself has many useful fuctions.Before I had my cell phone I was not bothered as much with people calling me or texting me. It has never occurred to me the importance of being able to keep contact with others. But when I acquired my cell phone everything changed, in a sense of how I talk to my friends and family. Cell phone are commonly small and very light, you do not even notice its presence until it rings. There is a saying," You never know what you have until it is gone". This saying reminds me a lot of my cell phone and how I would feel if I have lost it. I would not be able to text message anyone when I am bored or need a friend to talk to. I cannot call someone when there is an emergency and I need to reach people. More importantly I would not be able to call the people I care about to make sure they are safe. This reminds me of an incident that happen a few weeks ago. I got this message from my best friend, something bad had happen to her and it scared me. She was 70 miles away and I cannot just bike over to see her. So I did the next best thing I called her as soon as I could. After a few minutes I was able to reach her and talk to her about the personal problems that were going on in her life. I felt so relieved after that call knowing she is safe. We are miles apart and I know I can never be there with her all the time, but by knowing I have a way to reach at all times is comforting. The same goes for everyone else in my life; I have friends who have moved across the state and across the nation. It is physically impossible to be there with them when we are separated by miles and miles of land.
That is why I am thankful that in 1876 Alexander Graham had invented the telephone, because it had lead to the advancement of the handheld cellular phone. The cell phone has helped me keep in touch with everyone in my life. No matter how far they are, this small object has the ability to reach them. I can be in Stockton and call my friend in Santa Clarita, even though it is a five hour drive I can reach her in mere minutes. Also with texting I am not limited to talking to only one person, I can text message 10, 20 or even 30 people at a time with just a push of a button. Technology is truly amazing, without my cell phone I would not be able to keep my relationships with my family and friend as strong as it is right now.
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